Frost Ogres (Challenge Ogres “Paint What We’ve All Got” Painting Challenge) for Wars of Orcs and Dwarves

Earlier this year, two UK bloggers, Roger from “Rantings from Under the Wargames Table” in conjunction with Dave Stone of “Wargames Terrain Workshop” set out a painting challenge poll. I think Roger came up with the idea of a painting challenge where we all would paint the same figure. Roger sent out a poll on what type of figure would be chosen, and Dave volunteered to sculpt it.

The poll results ended up with the selection of a common figure for us all to paint and share by the September in a “Paint What We’ve All Got” painting challenge. That figure selection ended up being an ogre: “Savage, armoured fantasy Ogre with a hand weapon”.

The genesis of this was Roger’s post on back on March 8th with the aforementioned readers’ poll. Dave’s March 28th post on the Challenge Ogre is here. Roger followed up on his blog here. Dave, who is a masterful sculptor and modeler, came up with the figure. The ogre figure carries a massive stone ax. He wears lots of bones on his wrists, and an animal pelt on his lower torso and a shoulder pelt. The shoulder pelt is festooned with multiple animal horns as well. Dave went with a Norse motif with the sculpt. Here is the original photo of the ogre sculpt from his blog:

Once the challenge was set, I contacted Dave Stone and ordered five of the figures, which arrived in the spring. Why 5? So that I could have an entire regiment of them!

I had no idea as to when I would get to painting them -until recently – when I had decided that this was a good opportunity to accomplish a few things. First, this would let me have a small “palette cleansing” (pun intended) chance to paint something a little different than all the Ozz stuff that I have been painting lately. I do love the Ozz stuff but variety is the spice of life as they say.

Second, painting up a unit of these would be useful for a game of WOOD (Wars of Orcs and Dwarves). WOOD is basically a similar set of rules by Buck Surdu using his Wars of Ozz engine for mass fantasy battles with a few changes.

Lastly, it was an opportunity to participate in an intriguing and fun painting challenge with fellow bloggers across the globe.

Again, the figures arrived sometime back in the late spring/early summer timeframe. Since then, I worked on other things that you’ve seen this blog. The packing Dave did of the figures was outstanding – they all arrived in excellent condition. After looking at the figures, I decided that I wanted to make them “frost ogres”, as they looked to me to be perfect for a winter environment. I debated between ice ogre and frost ogre. In the end I went with Frost Ogre. Yes, I know there are frost giants, ice trolls, and the like, but for fantasy stuff you can do whatever you want!

I gave them all a good scrubbing as I hate when paint does not stick well to resin.

As far as basing goes, I knew that I would have to base them on larger bases than the 2” x 2” normally used for Ozz and WOOD. The figures are too large otherwise. And the WOOD rules happily accommodates such a situation. After some consultation with both Dave Wood and Buck Surdu, I decided to go with 2″ x 4″ in terms of basing. Instead of taking 4 hits like a 2” x 2” base, each Frost Ogre base will take 8 hits. So this will be a mighty regiment of Frost Ogres.

The figures themselves were 28mm scale and resin with wire internal supports (nice call on that Dave). They required a little bit of assembly as both hands needed to be attached. I assembled the figures by using green stuff instead of glue to affix the hands and to attach the feet to the steel bases. I’m not sure if that was a right or wrong decision, but I always feel a little bit cautious with regards to resin figures in terms of what might work for glue. As I ordered them without bases, so I could base them appropriately for WOOD, I would need to deal with that aspect, too. Initially, I considered adding a few secondary weapons in their left hands. However, as those hands has wide open palms, I eventually passed on doing so because it just didn’t look right. I initially based the figures on 2″ x 2″ steel bases for painting – with an eye to then base them permanently on 2″ x 4″ bases.

While giving them secondary weapons would have given me a chance to differentiate the figures, I decided that I would differentiate them instead by altering the position of the hands as well as through painting. By painting, I thought that I would give each of the ogres a slightly different bluish, flesh color, as befits a Frost Ogre. I would also differentially paint their pelts.

I started dabbling with/working on them at different times since June while I worked on this, that, and the other Ozz thing. While I am definitely not a hobby butterfly (apologies to IRO, I have nothing against hobby butterflies!), I did want to finish more of the Ozz stuff that I was working on that I’ve shared previously. But, finally, it was time for a short break to work on these…but in the process of working on them, I accidentally tipped over and broke one of the figures horns on the shoulder pad. This ticked me off – as it was shattered and not easily repairable. I didn’t want to risk resculpting the horn as I knew whatever I did would never look as good as what Dave done originally. In any case, I think that damage just added to the figures’ differentiation because the horn looked like it was battle damaged in the end. You can be the judge when you see the final figures in a bit.

Below, you’ll see some work in progress, pictures, and then afterwards, I’ll show some eye candy with a new background that I printed off that I think shows off the Frost Ogres in a nice winter environment.

WIP Shots

My approach to painting was to manually prime these with some white Vallejo primer that was left over. It wouldn’t flow through my airbrush anymore, but was still useful. Then, I washed the non-flesh parts with a dark wash, and the flesh parts with a Reaper MSP blue liner. That blue liner had laid unused in my paint collection for at least 5 years. This blue liner, I hoped, would give me an appearance/depth of color underneath for the future flesh tones.

Subsequent to this, I would dry brush back over the blue and the dark with white.

Then I focused on the non-flesh areas of the models – horns, bones, pelts, and weapons.

Lastly, I would then go with colors over the white that hopefully would be speed or contrast paints, washes, and highlights that could help with the looks I wanted. I initially chose the five colors below for flesh tones:

All were fine, except for the Citadel “Briar Queen Chill”, which was really more of a ghoulish green. I applied it, as I though “chill” and “frost” went together. But, I was not very happy. It was not bluish in the least – it was green. As I did not want one figure to look like the Incredible Hulk, I just went over this green with a Citadel “Drakenhof Nightshade” blue shade, which gave it a nice, somewhat turquoise-looking color. Not being a GW guy, I really wasn’t aware of what a briar queen was! I guess it’s sort of a witch. Another item, I also used a 7,000 RPM paint shaker on these – and it worked great to get the pigments really shaken up. The Army Painter speed paints all have steel balls in them, but the shaker is something I highly recommend, especially for the paints that tend to settle out a bit. At $46 US, its pretty good – you just have to recharge it with a USB cable.

Back to the models. As I went “blue” with these, I made sure that the colors would vary.

One of the major challenges in this project was dealing with the left hands. On one figure (base one), I had assembled the left hand too low to the ground. So, when I adjusted the basing to the 2″ x 4″ bases it, I just used some green stuff to alter its pose. I added each Frost Ogre’s Wargames Accessories 2″ square steel base (which I had mounted the ogres to with green stuff initially) to a 2″ x 4″ polystyrene plastic base. Then, I added two more steel 2″ bases underneath for transport/storage and magnetic attraction purposes.

As for the snow flocking on the bases, I used several products. I started the gray Vallejo Ground Texture “Rough Grey Pumice”, followed by two Citadel texture paints (Mourn Mountain Snow” and “Valhallan Blizzard”. You can see all the paints that I use. at the end of this blog, for that special person who wants to know what I used, or for me because when I want to re-create an effect – or a painting scheme – I will never remember – unless I write it down. I also added a Pendraken 12mm dice frame to one figure, plus some rocks and oak twigs. And lastly, I sprinkled some Citadel “Snow” that had been in my supplies unused since 2015 over a light PVA on the bases.

Given that I used a number of contrast and speed paints in this project, and that I did not want to have any bleed, I did take a lot of time in between steps to let things dry. Or that’s just an excuse because I went golfing…

As promised, here is some:

Eye candy

Base 1

This is the base with the broken horn. Flesh tone is primarily Citadel “Frost Heart”. I gave this, the most blue figure, the dice frame.

Base 2

Flesh tone is primarily Citadel “Pylar Glacier”.

Base 3

Flesh tone is primarily Citadel “Briar Queen Chill” washed with “Drakenhof Nightshade”.

Base 4

Flesh tone is primarily Citadel “Aethermatic Blue”.

Base 5

Flesh tone is primarily Army Painter “Caribbean Ocean”.

Group Shot

Thanks so much to Dave and to Roger for the opportunity to work on these! I am sure that there will be others’ entries which will put these to shame – and I do look forward to seeing everyone else’s take.

Meanwhile, I hope that you found these interesting! I am very happy to have the unit ready for a game of WOOD, even though that game may be far off in the future. I do have a number of older fantasy figures that I do plan on painting and basing or just rebasing for WOOD going forward. But this was the first unit that I decided to give a shot at doing because of the wonderful painting challenge. Again, I’m really looking forward to my fellow bloggers take on these ogres as well, PLUS the bonus of seeing yours!

If you have any comments, as always, let me know in the blog comment section below. As for my next project, I think I am going to get to some more Gillikin beasts completed as well as finish off the Great Land of Harvest forces for Ozz . Appreciate your taking a look here!

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

For all of my previous posts on Wars or Orcs and Dwarves (WOOD), fantasy battle games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE FROST OGRE FIGURES:

1. 2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#21)
2. Green stuff (kneadatite)
3. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
4. Secret Weapon Washes “Heavy Body Black”
5. Poster tack
6. Vallejo Model Color “White”
7. Reaper MSP “Blue Liner”
8. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Apothecary White”
9. Vallejo Model Air “German Green Brown”
10. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Brownish Decay”
11. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Fire Drake”
12. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Battleship Grey”
13. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Bony Matter”
14. Army Painter “Rough Iron”
15. Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Rust Texturing”
16. Citadel “Typhus Corrosion”
17. Citadel “Ryza Rust”
18. Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Dark Rust Wash” (wash)
19. Army Painter “Soft Tone” (wash)
20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Satchel Brown”
21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
22. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Gravelord Grey”
23. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Wyldwood”
24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
25. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Space Wolves Grey”
26. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Ashen Stone”
27. Citadel “Drakenhof Nightshade” (wash)
28. Citadel “Ushabti Bone”
29. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Frostheart”
30. Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
31. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
32. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Pylar Glacier”
33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Briar Queen Chill”
34. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aethermatic Blue”
35. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Caribbean Blue”
36. Plastruct 2.5mm PS sheets
37. Gorilla Glue
38. Vallejo Ground Texture Acrylic “Rough Grey Pumice”
39. Citadel “Mourn Mountain Snow” (texture)
40. Citadel “Valhallan Blizzard” (texture)
41. Citadel “Snow” (flocking)
42. Citadel “Blood for the Blood God” (technical)
43. Pendraken 12mm dice frame
44. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
45. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
46. Vallejo Varnish “Satin Varnish”
47. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
48. Elmer’s PVA Glue
49. Small oak sticks (flocking)
50. Small stones (flocking)

If want to acquire the rules for Wars of Orcs and Dwarves, there are two options (and I make no money from this btw).

You can get the rules from Sally 4th as a book (here) or as a PDF (here). Also, Noble Knight Games in the US has them – though currently they are listed as out of stock (as of September 2, 2023). They are due to have more hard copies in soon – and that link is here.